The integration of the Yangtze River Delta in the past five years: seeking common ecology and development from "chess player" to "flag bearer"
In the early winter, strolling through Anjiyu Village, Zhejiang, the stone monument engraved with "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" comes into view, and the surrounding picturesque rural scenery shines brightly.
This stele has witnessed the exploration and practice of the concept of "two mountains" in Yucun over the years, and recorded the development code of Yucun people's "turning green into gold".
The stone monument at the entrance of Yucun Village. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Anji County Party Committee
"The Yangtze River Delta region is the leader of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and it should not only be at the forefront of economic development, but also take the lead in ecological protection and construction." Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that ecological environmental protection and economic development are not contradictory and antagonistic, but dialectical unity. Only by protecting the ecology well and giving full play to the ecological advantages can we achieve high-quality development.
Chinese modernization is the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. As one of the most economically developed regions in China, in the past five years, the three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta have firmly established the concept of ecological priority and green development with the attitude of pathfinders, strengthened the joint protection and governance of the ecological environment, and painted a beautiful ecological picture.
Solve the dilemma of regional governance
From "one-man show" to "concerto"
The three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta are connected by mountains and rivers, rivers and lakes. In the past, the regional ecology was once destroyed.
General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta should firmly establish the idea of "a game of chess". At the symposium on in-depth promotion of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta held on November 30, General Secretary Xi Jinping once again pointed out that the Yangtze River Delta region should strengthen the joint protection and governance of the ecological environment. Strengthen the seamless connection of the ecological protection red lines of the three provinces and one municipality, promote the joint protection of important ecological barriers and ecological corridors, strengthen the comprehensive prevention and control of air, water and soil pollution, carry out in-depth joint protection and management of transboundary water bodies, strengthen regional policy coordination for energy conservation, emission reduction and carbon reduction, and build a regional green manufacturing system.
Taihu Lake straddles Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, bordering Wuxi in the north, Huzhou in the south, and Suzhou in the east. As the common "big water tank" of the Yangtze River Delta, Taihu Lake used to be full of scenery, and the coastal cities were full of boats.
Once upon a time, industrial wastewater, aquaculture wastewater, and domestic sewage were directly discharged into Taihu Lake... The extensive development has turned the "big water tank" into a "big dye vat".
In 2007, Taihu Lake was hit with "cyanobacterial disease", which sounded the alarm bell for coastal cities. The protection of Taihu Lake is imminent, and the management is by no means a family matter! After learning from the pain, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have made concerted efforts to trace the source and control the source, opening a new situation of joint rectification.
The water on the shore of Taihu Lake in Changxing County is clear and green. Photo by Tan Yunfeng
Affected by the monsoon, there was an outbreak of cyanobacteria in Wuxi in the first half of the year, and it was delayed to September and October in Huzhou. In recent years, Huzhou has sent salvage ships to Wuxi in the first half of the year to help Wuxi salvage, and vice versa in the second half of the year.
It is not only the personnel of the two places who are sharing, but also the mechanism and experience.
In 2020, Huzhou and Wuxi jointly signed a cooperation agreement on the coordination mechanism for the prevention and control of cyanobacteria in Taihu Lake.
"The two places are learning from each other's experience more and more frequently, and this year Huzhou has drawn on Wuxi's governance model to formulate a blue-green algae control plan. The two places have achieved information sharing, joint inspections and cross-inspections to jointly improve the governance level of Taihu Lake. Today, Zhou Li, a member of the Party Committee and chief engineer of the Huzhou Ecological Environment Bureau, regularly receives meteorological satellite monitoring maps released by Wuxi City to keep abreast of the water quality of Taihu Lake. ”
In order to promote the iterative upgrading of ecological joint logistics cooperation in the adjacent areas around Taihu Lake, this year, Wujiang in Suzhou and Wuxing in Huzhou signed the "Memorandum of Understanding on Cross-regional Ecological Environment Joint Prevention and Control Coordination Mechanism", which extends 1 km on both sides of the 4.6-kilometer dividing line between the two places as a cross-joint law enforcement area.
"The two places have set up a joint police station at the junction. When transboundary pollution occurs, the other party can be quickly notified and jointly disposed of. Chen Lizhe, captain of the second squadron of the Wuxing District Ecological and Environmental Protection Administrative Law Enforcement Team, said.
Qiao Wei Ecological Joint Service Police Station at the junction of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Wuxing District Party Committee
The Chu River is the boundary river of Jiangsu and Anhui, and a first-class tributary of the Yangtze River. Stroll here, a clear water and a mountain.
From "chaotic" to "green show belt", Zhao Haiqing, a villager in Nanqiao District, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province, who has lived here for more than 30 years, clearly remembers that the change began at the end of 2018 when Jiangsu and Anhui provinces signed the "Cooperation Agreement on Establishing a Horizontal Ecological Protection and Compensation Mechanism in the Yangtze River Basin".
From 2019 to 2021, the annual average value of the Chuhe Chenqian section met the assessment requirements of Class III. Chuzhou, which received 40 million yuan of ecological compensation funds from Jiangsu Province, "collected money" with peace of mind, while Jiangsu happily "paid money".
Beautiful view of the Chu River. Photo by People's Daily reporter Tao Tao
The cross-provincial coordinated water control work of Taihu Lake and Chuhe River is a vivid epitome of the joint protection and management of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Delta.
Say goodbye to the "one-man show" and play the ecological "concerto" with four hands. Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui have broken down the barriers to cross-regional cooperation in ecological protection, and "integrated green governance" has become a consensus.
In 2022, the proportion of surface water excellent Class III sections in the Yangtze River Delta Ecological Green Integrated Development Demonstration Zone will increase by 21.2% compared with 2019, the excellent rate of AQI of ambient air quality will increase by 4.9% compared with 2019, and the ecological function will be basically perfect... The beautiful Yangtze River Delta with higher appearance attracts tourists.
Accelerate the transformation of ecological advantages
From "good looks" to "high value"
"When I was a child, the water quality of the Xin'an River in my hometown was poor, and the sewage and domestic sewage from the chicken farms along the coast were directly discharged into the river. Yin Jianxin was born on the Xin'an River in She County, Huangshan City, and now every time he goes back to his hometown, he can't help but sigh, "The water is clear, the mountains are green, and the air is fresher." ”
Beautiful scenery from the source of the Xin'an River in Huangshan Mountain, Anhui Province. Photo by People's Daily reporter Zhang Jun
The change started 10 years ago.
In 2012, Anhui and Zhejiang provinces signed a VAM agreement, initiating a 10-year reform of the compensation mechanism for ecological protection in the Xin'an River basin. During this period, the relevant participants invested more than 20 billion yuan in ecological governance and environmental protection, greatly improving the water quality of the lower reaches of the Xin'an River such as Qiandao Lake, and also driving the development of tourism, ecological agriculture and other industries in Huangshan and other places - Huangshan City has created an immersive leisure and vacation experience model of "health + heart", rural tourism covers more than 70% of villages, and nearly 100,000 farmers have become scenic waiters; Huizhou B&Bs have increased to more than 3,000, ranking among the first batch of B&B industry development demonstration zones in China.
Nowadays, the transformation of ecological "high value" into economic "high value" is accelerating. The "Xin'anjiang model", an "institutional innovation of cross-provincial cooperation", has made Xin'anjiang a "rich river" in Anhui and Zhejiang provinces.
Anhui Huangshan B&B outside the Xin'an River through the city. Photo by People's Daily reporter Zhang Jun
Zhaishang Village, Weiping Town, Chun'an County, Zhejiang Province, a small mountain village in the lower reaches of the Xin'an River and at the junction of Zhejiang and Anhui, has also enjoyed the dividends brought by lucid waters and lush mountains. Nowadays, the homestay industry in the village is booming, and many fishermen have changed careers to become homestay owners after landing. By the end of 2022, there are 10 homestays in the village, receiving more than 20,000 tourists annually, with a cumulative increase of 3 million yuan.
Scenery of the fishing village on the house. Photo courtesy of the Party Committee of Weiping Town, Chun'an County
The ecological environment has continued to improve, and the people's sense of happiness has also been significantly enhanced.
Yuandang Lake is located at the junction of Shanghai and Jiangsu, with 3.1 square kilometers belonging to Shanghai Qingpu and 9.9 square kilometers belonging to Wujiang, Jiangsu. In the past, there were problems such as unclear division of responsibilities in the environmental governance of the two places, and the water quality of Yuandang Lake remained in the inferior class for many years.
"It turns out that the two sides of the strait are either fish ponds and wasteland, or they are occupied by enterprises, and ordinary people can't get in. Xiang Yunxu, deputy director of the Qingpu District Water Conservancy Management Institute, said that since 2020, Qingpu and Wujiang have jointly restored water bodies and renovated the ecological shoreline, and Yuandang Lake has reproduced the beautiful blue waves.
Birds of Yuandang Lake. Photo by Lu Wenzhong
Green is the bright background color of high-quality development. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that it is necessary to improve the value realization mechanism of ecological products and broaden the path of transforming ecological advantages into economic advantages.
In order to fully release the value of lucid waters and lush mountains, in October 2020, Zhejiang Province issued the country's first provincial-level GEP (Gross Ecosystem Product) accounting standard, and GEP accounting has moved from pilot to provincial standardization. Through the quantitative evaluation of the value of ecological products, lucid waters and lush mountains have a clear "price". In addition, Zhejiang has also pioneered the ecological credit system in the country, awakened a large number of "sleeping" assets in rural areas, and realized the transformation of "depositing lucid waters and lush mountains and taking out gold and silver mountains" through institutional and mechanism innovations such as "forest loans" and "reservoir loans".
Drawing on Zhejiang's experience, other regions in the Yangtze River Delta have also gradually established and improved the service platform for the docking of ecological resources, markets and funds: Jiangsu has identified 14 counties (cities and districts) as provincial pilot projects for the value realization mechanism of ecological products; Anhui has built an ecological product exchange, upgrading from the initial agricultural and forestry property rights trading platform to a comprehensive ecological product trading platform covering rural property rights, pollutant discharge rights, water rights and other comprehensive ecological products, and actively exploring the path of realizing the value of ecological products.
Give full play to the leading role of radiation
From "Yangtze River Delta" to "Greater China"
It is connected to Taihu Lake in the west and the Huangpu River in the east. On the 30th parallel, the Taipu River is like a green belt, connecting Qingpu in Shanghai, Wujiang in Jiangsu and Jiashan in Zhejiang (hereinafter referred to as "Qingwujia").
In the fifties and sixties of the last century, in order to relieve the flooding of Taihu Lake and Hangjia Lake, the three places worked together to excavate this river. Over time, the three places have also changed their positioning – the Taipu River is an important flood channel for the Wujiang River upstream, and Qingpu and Jiashan downstream for the river as a source of drinking water.
Different positioning, water treatment standards are also different. "I don't care, you don't care, the water hyacinth has his own management"..."don't care" caused the Taipu River to be seriously polluted and smelly black and smelly.
The turning point began with the establishment of the United River and Lake Chief System in 2019.
On November 1 of that year, "Qingwujia" had a new national name - Yangtze River Delta Ecological Green Integrated Development Demonstration Zone. As a result, the Taipu River has become a "witness" and "practitioner" of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta.
In order to put an end to the phenomenon of "Shanyin does not care, will not be collected" in the Taipu River, under the coordination of the Executive Committee of the Yangtze River Delta Ecological Green Integrated Development Demonstration Zone, the three places have come together. After countless coordination meetings and "brainstorming", the United River and Lake Chief System was born. A set of standards and a blueprint have been drawn up, and the three places have established a normal mechanism in the areas of joint river patrols, joint water quality monitoring, joint law enforcement consultations, joint cleaning of rivers and lakes, and joint management of rivers and lakes to promote the joint management of the boundary rivers of the Taipu River.
From "where the water hyacinth flows, the responsibility for pollution control belongs to whom" has been changed to "not let a string of water hyacinth float to the next province and city"..."Qingwujia" cross-domain cooperation to build a demonstration area "water town living room", to create a common "living room" in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. Today's Taipu River, with green forests and fragrant birds, has become a famous bird-shooting resort.
Scenery of the Taipu River. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Jiashan County Party Committee
Nowadays, in the area around Taihu Lake, the ecological barrier area of southern Anhui-western Zhejiang, the ecological corridor of the Yangtze River, and the ecological corridor of Huaihe-Hongze Lake, the joint river and lake chief system has become an important institutional guarantee for cross-regional water ecological governance.
The joint river and lake chief system, which was born on the Taipu River, has gradually expanded from "water" to "shore", and from "Qingwujia" to the whole country.
Coincidentally. The first cross-basin ecological compensation mechanism in China has also been extended from the "Xin'anjiang model" in Zhejiang and Anhui provinces to 19 provinces and 15 cross-provincial river basins across the country.
The protection of the Yangtze River basin, which flows through more than 10 provinces across the country, has also borne "fruits" under the Yangtze River Joint Co-governance Agreement and other systems: the finless porpoise is once again playing in the water, and the critically endangered fish that has disappeared for more than 20 years has reappeared.
Ecological priority, green development, and cross-domain integration have been steadily promoted. Since its establishment, the demonstration zone has launched a total of 136 institutional innovation achievements, including 38 institutional innovation experiences such as the joint river and lake long-term system, which are being replicated and promoted to the Yangtze River Delta and other key regions across the country.
From "protecting the ecological environment like protecting eyes, treating the ecological environment like life" to "building a green Great Wall in the northern Xinjiang of the motherland", and then to "the environment is the people's livelihood, the green mountains are beautiful, and the blue sky is also happiness"... General Secretary Xi Jinping's important exposition on ecological protection is being practiced everywhere.
From the "one family" in the Yangtze River Delta to the "one game of chess" in the whole country, the "integrated consciousness" of ecological environment protection and joint governance has gradually been accepted by other places and has become a consensus on environmental governance.
The practice of the Yangtze River Delta shows that ecological environmental protection and economic development are not "either/or" "multiple choices", but "symphony" of harmonious symbiosis.
Focusing on ecological and green integration, what new actions will there be in the Yangtze River Delta?
We will continue to consolidate the achievements of the 10-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River, promote a new round of comprehensive water environment management in the Taihu Lake Basin, compile and complete the construction plan of the Xin'an River-Qiandao Lake Ecological Protection and Compensation Model Area, explore the establishment of a pilot working mechanism for regional emission rights trading, improve the emergency response mechanism for environmental emergencies, and promote the construction of the Yangtze River Delta Ecological Green Integrated Development Demonstration Zone to improve quality and efficiency. The answer was given at the 2023 Yangtze River Delta Regional Major Leaders Symposium.
As the birthplace and first practice place of the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", the reform experience created by the Yangtze River Delta, a "test field", has "blossomed and borne fruit" in the soil of "Greater China". From the "chess player" who implements Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought and revitalizes the "game of chess" of ecological and environmental protection, to the pioneer "standard-bearer" who provides experience for the national ecological environmental protection, the three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta will continue to write a new chapter in ecological integration. (Fang Peng Yimeng, Kang Mengqi, Zhang Lei, Li Kuo, Tang Xiaoli, Ma Zuopeng, Zhang Yufeng)
